Mario and Sonic are taking the Olympics - Preview

There is something special about the Olympics, not the sports perse, as I could care less about them, but the spectacle of the events, the stadiums and the talent of athletes are what sell it. Then there are the games and over the years, they have ranged from good to woeful and then we got the Mario and Sonic series, pitting the two rivals in some healthy sports, but they too have been a little odd at times, but the latest is almost here, so how is it shaping up?

Well, I have sunk a few hours into it so far, across the games various sports, in both the modern style and the old school 8-bit and the story mode and so far, it is really good, if shallow. What I mean by that is that all the events are unlocked from the get-go, which is nice, so you can just jump in a play, but I can’t find any sense of progression for the game, which is a shame. Now the story mode might unlock things once completed, I am only few chapters into it, so I can’t say how that will play out, but I am hopeful. Speaking of the story mode, it opens with quite the fun little story moment, before quickly getting into the action and while it does not appear to be deep, it is entertaining, which is more important.

Of course, the events themselves are what make up the bulk of the game and so far, the ones I have played are fun, and offer a range of control options. Playing it at E3, I was worried that motion would be required for all the games, even if the game would work better with buttons, but nope the game will let you choose, which is a welcome change. That means that if you play the skateboarding game, you can use a stick, but for something like archery, you can go with motion and each game still feels fun. There are some games that will not let you use the third option, which is just a single Joy-Con, which is fine, but they are few and far between, most will have an allowance for it.

Playing archery for a while, you can easily get a sense of the motion that the actual people competing would go through, as the game can use two Joy-Con. When you draw back, you have to move the right Joy-Con behind, much like you would if you were drawing the string, whereas the left Joy-Con is used to aim, as if you were going to shoot where the imaginary bow was facing. It takes a bit to adjust to it, but once you do, it feels so natural, those who have been with the series since the original Wii release, will remember similar controls for that version, the only difference is that there is now no longer a 2 foot cord connecting the two halves.

The 8-bit games are very much like the old school NES sports games, as in a lot of button mashing, but there is a real sense of charm to them, though Volleyball, I hate you, granted I have only played two games of it, but so far it is not shaping up to be worth a lot of my time. The other games, as I said, are mostly button mashers, so they don’t seem to hold a lot of depth to them, but I need to play more to be sure.

So far, a few hours with Mario and Sonic at the Olympics Tokyo 2020 is proving this to be one of the best in the series, the story mode could be nothing special, but it could be charming enough to not matter. I am hoping to find things to unlock as I complete chapters of the story, but for now, it seems not to be the case, but the events that are there, are fun and I have not even touched upon the Dream events, but I will leave that for the review, which will be up in a few weeks.